HSE insist suicide prevention is available

HEALTH officials have hit back at claims by a coroner and a child protection group that the HSE was failing the most vulnerable and needy.

The Health Service Executive South insisted yesterday it has developed a range of services for suicide prevention and for those who have been affected by suicide or are at risk of self-harm.

A coroner in Wexford rounded on the service last week, saying no lessons were learned since the suicide of mother-of-three Sharon Grace, who drowned her daughters and then herself in April 2005.

Emergency contact numbers sought by the distraught 28-year-old, before taking her life, have yet to be provided to staff at the hospital where she called for help.

The Irish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children also said that children are not getting adequate protection.

But mental health resource officer with the HSE South, Sean McCarthy said: “People who feel they are in crisis need to know they are not alone. We have produced an easy reference card called Help and Support — Only a Phonecall away, with a list of Wexford-based local health service numbers and national support groups.”

*HSE Mental Health Resource Office on Tel. [phone]

*Wexford Self Harm Intervention Service 053 9174050 Monday to Friday 9am–5pm

*Regional Suicide Resource Office, St Patrick’s Hospital, John’s Hill, Waterford 051 874013